


Roots go Down, Down, Down

by magnedhead



Series: Cthulhu's Bonsai [2]
Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft
Genre: Cthulhu Mythos, Gen, Horror, Lovecraftian, Outer Space, Science Fiction, Space Stations, Suspense, cosmic horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27326896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnedhead/pseuds/magnedhead
Summary: This story is written as a sort of sequel to Cthulhu’s Bonsai, a collection of short stories also available on my profile. Without it some context and worldbuilding is lost, so I recommend giving it a quick read beforehand. I hope you enjoy both, thanks for reading!After Earth discovers the wondrous and mysterious Tree, a colony is quickly established on the planet surrounding the Tree. One doctor finds herself involved in a mystery with the Tree at its heart.
Series: Cthulhu's Bonsai [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995139
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Doctor Jeriah Matleena shouted into the radio in her spacesuit.

“I don’t know, we don’t know.” Nikolav shouted back. The stress of the situation was returning the man’s accent in force, so much so that it was audible over the crackle of the radio.

Victims were coming out of the bulkhead airlock tied to stretchers while moaning and wincing. A woman was on the first stretcher. Her skin was patched with blue and black but her face had taken the worst damage, as it must have been exposed to the super-cold vacuum flooding in after the escaping air in the damaged lounge. They needed medical attention with proper tools, and waiting would only worsen their condition.

Jeriah turned to the young woman at her side. “Olivia, get all the depressurization victims to the clinic.” Olivia just stared at her for a long moment, then swallowed and nodded before pushing the stretcher along the central corridor. People quickly gave way, someone following closely behind to help with the other stretchers. Jeriah Matleena took a deep breath herself before lowering the visor and venturing into the airlock of the emergency bulkhead. It was the first occurrence of a freak pressure breach since the colony had been founded. Thankfully, it had been in the night where only a few people were up and about. At the current count, 5 people had been caught in the breach, 2 of which had been pulled out of the colony into the vacuum of space and the remaining 3 had managed to stay within the room. Engineers in spacesuits were retrieving the two external bodies now.

_ Victims, Jeriah, victims _ . It was hard to think positively when they must have been exposed to the vacuum of space for at least 20 minutes. The internal victims had at least had access to an emergency oxygen-mask to share between them and as such ‘only’ had severe frost-burns to their eyes and skin. It would be a miracle if the external victims were still alive. It  _ wouldn’t feel like a miracle to them. _

“Doktor! Here’s the first!” Someone shouted at her as one of the engineers approached her. She recognised the name-patch on the engineer’s suit. Nikolav.

“Thank you, Nikolav. How do they look?” Jeriah asked as she gently took hold of the stretcher, noting the elegant name-patch that said ‘Guuka’. Best not to pull on any extremities if at all avoidable. The extreme cold of space could do horrible things to the human body. The Russian engineer said nothing and simply shook his broad head inside his suit. She understood. Still, she would bring Guuka to the infirmary and see if anything could be done. As she arranged for the transport of Guuka’s body, the second external victim came in, in much a similar state. Their bodies were so damaged that a cryo-pod was needed to keep them from disintegrating on the journey from the accident site to the infirmary. Since only one was available, the second body, tagged with the name ‘Francis’, had to be kept in the breached compartment until the cryopod-stretcher was available again.


	2. Chapter 2

Dr. Matleena stood at the glass window looking into the pressure chamber. All 3 internal victims had been brought in, though they would be staying in the infirmary for at least a week while they recovered. She wished she could say the same for the externals. They would be in thermal isolation for most of a day before any results would become apparent, and even then Jeriah could not believe said results would be at all positive.

Jeriah’s nurse, Olivia, appeared to her right. “How’s it look?” Olivia said.

“It doesn’t look great, but my teachers back on Earth always told me to keep believing till the flat line appears.” Jeriah said.

“And then tell it to fuck off. I remember Doctor Percival’s lessons. His coat was always pristine, no matter the circumstances.” Olivia said. “Dr Matleena, get some sleep. I’ll handle telling the families. Going by their records, these two mostly had each other and a business partner or two. I can manage it.”

Jeriah considered opposing for a moment but she had already been on her feet since 06:30 before the alarms had woken her from a brief slumber at 02 the following night. A glance at the watch on her wrist showed 04:50. A 22-hour shift. Nothing compared to what some terrestrial doctors had to go through, but then space had its own little eccentricities to deal with. “I’ll take you up on that offer, Olivia.”

Jeriah had only just begun collecting her belongings and putting on her coat when there was a loud bump on glass. Both Olivia and Jeriah started, shouting in surprise. A hand was pressed against the glass of the pressure chamber, condensation forming around it. The chamber beyond was clouded with something like mist or steam and neither doctor nor nurse could see what was happening within. The skin was cracked and bloody, cuts and cracks oozing liquids. A bloody handprint was left behind as the hand retreated back into the mist.

“That’s the pressure chamber!” Olivia said. The young woman was staring wide-eyed at the handprint on the glass.

“Yes. I double-checked it just before you came in. It’s functioning normally, no changes since the patients went in.” Jeriah said in a voice as calm as she could manage.

“But someone’s awake in there!” Olivia said.

“I can see that,” Jeriah said, “How did anyone get in?”

“Wait!” Jeriah said and reached out to stop Olivia. The young woman was moving towards the airlock to the pressure chamber behind the glass. “You said it yourself, it’s the pressure chamber. Even if there is someone else in there, opening it is too dangerous right now.” Her voice was calm now, stern.

Olivia initially tried to pull away, but Jeriah had helped the nurse regain a measure of composure. “Even so, we can’t just leave them in there.”

As they spoke, a shape loomed out of the mist. Jeriah recognised it immediately. Guuka, one of the victims that had gone out into the vacuum of space. The woman was nude, her clothes sheared away from her when Jeriah had operated. Her skin was bleeding and cracked from the ravages of space, her eyes bloodshot and her lips and eyelids spotted with an unpleasant dark-blue hue. Despite those horrendous injuries, Guuka was standing up, looking as elegant as a woman could while pounding on a sheet of glass with her fist. She left spatters of blood with every impact.

Jeriah and Olivia were frozen in shock, staring at the glass and the figure beyond. Guuka shouted and looked about, but the glass was a soundproof one-way mirror. They could hear none of what she said, and Guuka would not be able to see the two of them.

Eventually Guuka stopped and moved out of view, towards the door if Jeriah was any judge. Chastising herself for being so paralysed, Jeriah stepped around the corner to the intercom.

“Hello Guuka, this is Doctor Jeriah.” She said calmly into the receiver. That fact that Guuka should barely be alive, let alone wander around unaided, was at the forefront of Jeriah’s mind.

The system crackled as it switched to the receiver inside the chamber. Jeriah could see Guuka staring at a spot to her right of the door. Probably the intercom relay on that side.

“Hello Doctor. Where am I?” Guuka responded. She sounded more like someone responding to a message from a friend than someone waking up from a near-death experience.

“What is the last you remember, Guuka?” Jeriah spoke slowly. Awake or not, the last thing she wanted was for Guuka to suddenly remember the incident and have a panic attack.

“I was in the Acacia Lounge enjoying a cup of tea,” The intercom went quiet and Jeriah made to speak when it buzzed back to life, “Then all went black.”

“Guuka,” Jeriah continued, “The hull by the Lounge suffered some sort of failure and you and 4 others were sent to my clinic. You and one other went out through the hull breach.”

It took so long for Guuka to respond that Jeriah asked Olivia to go around the corner back to the observation window to check on the woman. Guuka was standing by the intercom display. It was an odd sight, the woman covered in horrific wounds and injuries, yet holding her head like she simply had a mild headache.

The intercom buzzed. “I see. When can I leave this chamber? The door appears to be locked.”

Jeriah took a deep breath and swallowed. “Miss Guuka, I do not wish to alarm you, but you were heavily injured in a hull breach. To be frank, I am surprised you can speak unaided, let alone walk about.”

There was another pause, Jeriah looking askance at the corner to see if Olivia was there.

“I assure you Doctor, I feel fine. Never better.” Guuka said over the intercom.

Olivia hurried around the corner, her face pale as a sheet. “Doctor Matleena.”

“Yes Olivia?”

“I think you need to see this.” Olivia’s eyes were glued to the intercom panel, even though it was not transmitting.

Jeriah placed a hand on Olivia’s shoulder, drawing the young woman’s gaze. “Very well, let’s see it then.”

She used the intercom to inform Guuka of her brief absence then followed Olivia around the corner. Ahead of her, the young woman covered her mouth and grew pale again at what she saw beyond the glass.

The breath caught in Jeriah’s throat at the sight inside the chamber. Guuka was stood waiting at the intercom panel, maintaining a noble air despite her nakedness. What shocked Jeriah was the complete absence of injuries on Guuka’s body. Just a minute ago, the woman had been covered head-to-toe in weeping cracks and bloody wounds. Now her skin was unblemished, as if she was merely awaiting ministrations at a luxury spa. Even given time and a full recovery, those injuries should have left scars and blemishes.

Leaving Olivia at the window, Jeriah stormed back to the intercom. Her finger shook as she pressed the transmit-button. “Guuka, can you do me a favour?”

“Why, certainly Doctor, if I can be allowed to leave.” Guuka replied.

“I’ll look into it,” Jeriah said, “Can you walk over to the other person in there with you, a ‘Francis’? The thermal bed should have a green On-light.”

“She’s moving.” Olivia said from around the corner.

“Guuka, it is important you do not deactivate the bed. Francis had serious injuries, same as you.” Even saying it felt disingenuous considering what she had just seen. It could scarcely be believed.

After a moment the intercom buzzed again. “I see him. Poor Francis. If you hadn’t told me it was my dear Francis, I would barely have recognised him.”

“So, I hope you understand, Guuka, that I cannot just let you out. Francis needs rest.” Jeriah said.

After a moment, the intercom buzzed. “I understand, Doctor. Thank you for your help.”


	3. Chapter 3

After their conversation, Guuka retreated to the thermal bed and laid down, seemingly falling asleep. Jeriah left Olivia to continue monitoring the strange situation while Jeriah got some much-needed sleep, but her sleep was uneasy. Several times she was startled out of sleep, gasping for breath as nightmarish images flashed through her mind. After a few hours she gave up on sleep. The narrow viewport in her quarters looked out over the centre of the colony and the base of the Tree, and there she sat for a while with a cup of warm coffee, slowly sipping the brew and looking up as far as the angle of her viewport allowed.

Feeling calmer for it, Jeriah Matleena got dressed and returned to the clinic. Olivia had sent no overnight reports of changes in the pressure chamber, so Jeriah busied checked first on the internal patients that had been lucky to stay inside the lounge. They all seemed to be recovering well and would be allowed to leave her care within a couple of days. After logging the final details, Jeriah took a deep breath and keyed her credentials into the secure door to intensive care. Her assistant was sat at a table in front of the observation window, typing on some document on her laptop. A half-full pot of coffee stood on the table beside her alongside a well-used mug.

“Good morning Doctor Matleena.” Olivia said and sipped her coffee. Open books were piled around her.

“Morning Olivia. What are you working on?” Jeriah asked, though she could have guessed. Inside that pressure chamber was, quite possibly, a medical marvel.

“Their medical journals. Even if we don’t know why yet, they’ve clearly recovered from their injuries.” Olivia said, not taking her eyes off her screen.

“ _ Their _ journals?” Jeriah asked. Her stomach lurched.

Olivia glanced up at her but only briefly. “The man, Francis, woke up a few hours after you left.”

“Francis woke up!? Why didn’t you inform me!” Jeriah said, unintentionally raising her voice.

“You had just gone to bed after a long shift and I recorded everything that happened after he woke up,” Olivia said calmly, then pointed to the mounted computer further into the intensive care chamber, “It’s all on there.”

A moment passed and Olivia looked back to her, hands leaving the laptop for once. “I’m sorry Doctor Matleena, I know you said ‘if anything happens’ but you looked ready to drop on your feet.”

Jeriah stood for a moment, then sighed and bent to pour a cop of the lukewarm coffee. “I appreciate the sentiment Olivia, but this is big, whatever it is. How are they now?”

Olivia nodded at the thick glass in front of them. “Up and about. I think they’re just talking between the two of them. I’ll inform you if anything changes,” Olivia put a hand across her heart with a smirk, “I promise.”

Jeriah accepted that and went to the computer to examine the events of the night while she had slept. There were over 3 hours of footage, and even at triple speed it would take her a respectable time to review it all. It started with Francis on the edge of his thermal bed and Guuka standing next to him. Francis had been severely injured from his time in the vacuum of space, cracks and bloody wounds on top of his face having been rendered nearly unrecognizable. Despite this, Francis easily stands up with only slight help from Guuka for balance, and though the footage carries no audio from inside the chamber, it is clear they converse for a few minutes before Francis examines himself and, to Jeriah’s amazement and repeated replays of the brief span of footage, recovers within seconds. At this point Olivia gets involved, and what follows is indeed relatively unremarkable, as Francis, Guuka and Olivia converse for a while before Francis and Guuka return to their thermal beds. The remaining 90 minutes of the footage is uneventful as the patients remain in their beds before Olivia turns off the recording.

“I turned it off about an hour ago.” Olivia says as Jeriah comes over to stand in front of the observation window.

“And they’ve been like this since then?” Jeriah asked. Olivia nodded in the affirmative.

Jeriah had little time to ponder this before the panel at the door pinged. Someone was at the front desk.

“I’ll take it.” Jeriah said, drinking the rest of the coffee in one gulp and returning to the regular ward of her clinic. A harried-looking man was standing at the entrance, leaning on the counter of the front desk. Exchanging greetings with a few of the patients as she passed, Jeriah rounded the corner of the separating glass-wall as the man was about to press the bell a second time.

“Can I help you, sir?” Jeriah said.

The man looked up, a sour expression on his face. Jeriah did not look forward to this conversation.

“Ah hello Doctor. I understand the patients from that accident last night were taken here?” He said.

Jeriah nodded. “They were. Most are here in the primary ward but two were so injured we put them in intensive care.”

The man started to speak but Jeriah cut him off. “Doctor Jeriah Matleena. I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but I didn’t catch your name.”

“Henrick Tarhauen,” The man said in a deep sigh, “I’m a friend of Francis Kirkis and Guuka Fareed. How are they doing?”

Jeriah found herself briefly at a loss for words. Normally she would console visitors with relatives or acquaintances in intensive care, but Henrick did not seem the type to need nor appreciate such gestures, and his friends had practically already recovered, though how that had happened was still a mystery.

After a moment she decided on a slight smile and hoped it did not look forced. “Your friends are doing very well, all things considered, Mr Tarhauen. They unfortunately were ejected out of the hull’s confines, but they survived, and I believe both should make a full recovery in time.”

Mr Tarhauen looked more like a businessman being told of a favourable stock change than someone hearing their friends would survive certain death. “I see, that is good. Can I see them?”

“I am afraid not, Mr Tarhauen,” Jeriah said, her smile fading, “They are still in intensive care and I’m afraid that they will remain so for weeks at the very least.”

“So that is a no?”

“Intensive is behind a locked door for a reason, Mr Tarhauen.” Jeriah replied.

Francis did not look like he was going to take that for an answer, but after a moment he seemed to relent. “Very well, but can you inform me when it will be possible to visit them?”

“I’ll inform my nurse to hail you when the possibility arises.” Jeriah said while wondering what Olivia would say to that.

Over the following days Jeriah and Olivia kept Francis and Guuka under observation in the pressure chamber, though the chamber’s functions were largely turned off. The thermal beds too were set to room temperatures. For all the data they collected from the observation and biometrics, Jeriah was still not any closer to understanding their rapid recovery. What medical records she had on the pair had nothing out of the ordinary. Regular high-wealth lifestyles. Like most in the colony, their records clearly stated consumption of the Rawlica Gourd, a measure taken in the years following discovery of the Gourds’ feasibility as a food-source. At the time, its properties had been examined but since the source was so exotic, measures felt needed to keep a clear record of who had eaten them. To Jeriah it had always felt pointless, being so ubiquitous. The only thing that really set them apart from most other wealthy business people in the colony was their recent accident. Outwardly their behaviour seemed perfectly normal and neither Francis nor Guuka complained of pains or discomforts following their awakening. Food and drink were delivered to them via the airlock. The pressure chamber allowed to sound to leave unless the intercom was enabled, but even so Jeriah watched with some interest while the two ate their various meals quickly and efficiently, with no discernible conversation while they ate.

After a few days of no developments or incidents, Jeriah and Olivia concluded that they would give the pair 2 days of no further incidents before they would discharge them. After all, if they were perfectly healthy, there was no reason to keep them in the intensive unit, let alone the infirmary. They had both recovered faster and more completely than any of the patients with much lighter injuries. The evening of the last day before their deadline, Jeriah and Olivia were sat by the observation window, drinking black coffee and tapping away at recording their observations, no matter how slight or unchanging.

“I bet,” Olivia said with a snicker, “that while we’re away, those two have tons of sex.”

“How would they know we’re not there?” Jeriah replied, sipping her coffee.

“We clock out over the intercom, don’t we?” Olivia said.

If they had not already discussed the ethics of surveying the pair, Jeriah would have brought it up then. As it was, they had long since enabled a 24 hour-recording setup at a low quality, so they could review everything that happened while they were gone. With some trepidation, Jeriah hooked up her laptop to the clinics server and put the footage on, starting just before Olivia had left the clinic a few evenings ago and when Jeriah had not turned in yet, There had just been a gap of some 40 minutes, but that can be a long time. Both doctor and nurse, the latter with some disappointment, watched while the couple in the pressure chamber simply slept. Olivia clocked out, Guuka responded then returned to her thermal bed and returned to her rest. Every shift of the watch the same situation played out, albeit slight differences in whether it was Guuka or Francis responding. Despite them being two naked people living in the same small room for a week, people ostensibly an item before the accident, they made no moves on each other. Jeriah supposed that they knew people might be looking at them through the glass, but even so.

“Guuka, Francis!” Jeriah called into the intercom.

After a brief moment the speaker buzzed and Guuka’s voice replied. “Yes, good doctor?”

“I have some good news for the both of you, if Francis is also awake.”

“I am.” Francis said over the intercom.

“My nurse and I have deliberated, and we believe we can discharge you two, if you wish. You’re both fully recovered.” Jeriah said, thinking back to what the two patients had looked like a week ago. In truth they had probably been fully recovered over 6 days ago. As to how, Jeriah could not say.

“Great to hear, doctor,” Guuka said, the tone not quite matching the words, “We would like that very much.”

Olivia put two bundles of clothes, acquired from the pairs own homes with the help of Francis Tarhauen, into the airlock of the pressure chamber while Jeriah finished powering down the isolation chamber.

Francis emerged from the airlock while adjusting his clothes. “Thank you, Doctor, for your work, but I will be well glad to be out of here.”

“No worries, Mr Francis, everyone feels that way after an extended stay in my clinic.” Jeriah said with an easy smile.

Guuka came after him and stood next to Francis, smiling at Jeriah and Olivia. “Thank you for your work, good doctor.”

“If you’d like to thank me, there is one thing I’d like the two of you to do.” Jeriah said.

“And that is?” Guuka said in a tone that Jeriah found impossible to read.

“Come back here every few days for a few weeks for a few checkups.” Jeriah said.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take more than an hour.” She added after the pair looked at each other silently.

“That sounds agreeable.” Guuka said and looked at Francis.

“We’ll see you here in a few days then, Doctor Matleena, and thank you for your service.” Francis said.

“Did you notice?” Olivia said while standing next to Jeriah at the door of their clinic. Guuka and Francis had just left together.

“Hmm?” Jeriah replied and looked at her nurse.

“They were wearing each other’s clothes.”


	4. Chapter 4

The streets were packed. Olivia walked side by side with Mr Kirkis and Mrs Fareed and Nikolav and Mrs Lena and Mr Kensuka and many others from the colony. Their passage left bloody footprints in the streets, their bodies covered in bloody cracks and weeping sores, rivulets of blood streaming from ruptured eyes.

“There is no pain, Doctor Matleena.”

“There is no death, Doctor Matleena.”

Jeriah Matleena screamed in terror and fled, running down the colony thoroughfare on her bare feet, her breath rasping in her lungs.

Another crowd of colonists came towards her, their cold-blackened skin cracking and breaking with every step, their eyes split and oozing.

“There is no pain, human.”

“There is no death, human.”

A great explosion rocked the colony followed by a great howl of rushing air. Jeriah’s howl was silenced as she was ripped out through the breach and out into space.

“AAAAaaaaoh god.” Jeriah howled and bolted upright in her bed. Her bedroom was silent, the only sound the quiet hum of the heat-lamp for her terrarium. On the floor, her alarm clock was buzzing, the little screen cracked down the middle from when she had smacked it in her night terrors. Every night since the hull breach-incident, Jeriah had experienced horrifying nightmares, and she could only feel like they were getting worse. Every time she woke up covered in sweat and gasping for breath, a headache growing behind her temples.

“Morning Olivia.” Jeriah said and sat down at her desk in the clinic. Her assistant was looking through a casefile. She mostly grunted a reply.

“Have our miracle patients checked in yet?” Jeriah continued when Olivia’s attention did not stray from the casefile.

“Mr Kirkis and Ms Fareed? No, they haven’t. It’s Ms Fareed casefile I’m looking at.” Olivia said.

Jeriah turned around and looked at the empty clinic. Every patient from the hull breach had been discharged by now. She’d have the time.

“I’ll go look for them,” Jeriah said, clapping Olivia on the shoulder, “I’ve got my pager on me if they get past my net.”

Jeriah decided to keep her coat on and ventured out into the colony thoroughfare. Out here amongst the crowds her nightmares seemed further away, pushed away by the bustle of the crowd and the gentle sight of space and the Regent outside the innerside viewports.

“Oh hey, Doctor!”

A chill flew up Jeriah’s spine and, as she turned to meet the speaker, her stomach squirmed as images of mutilated bodies stumbling towards her swam through her mind. The crowds around her were oppressive, pushing around her with a growing pressure. Their shrill voices like cries of pain.

“You okay, Doctor?” The voice asked, Jeriah’s vision clearing to reveal the face of Henrick Tarhauen. The man stood behind her in business-wear with a briefcase in his hand.

“Yeah I’m fine, thank you for asking, Mr Tarhauen, I just didn’t sleep very well.” Jeriah replied, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

“You too?” Henrick said. Then Jeriah noticed the slight bags under his eyes.

Jeriah looked about the crowds and shivered slightly. She could feel the glimpse of nightmare she had experienced earlier on the verge of returning. “I’ve had nightmares about the hull breach.”

“I can imagine that was quite horrible indeed, especially seeing the injuries.” Henrick said, not offering the reason for his own restlessness, though Jeriah noticed he too looked unsettled for a moment.

“It was, but I’ve not felt it like this before. I’ve been meaning to contact Doctor Shazmai, but I keep getting distracted.” Jeriah said.

“What’s distracting you today then, seeing as you’re not at your clinic and Doctor Shazmai’s clinic is the other direction?” Henrick said.

“Have you seen Mr Francis or Ms Guuka?” Jeriah asked, somewhat dodging the question.

“I saw them after they left your clinic a few days ago, but I haven’t seen them since.” Henrick replied.

“Not at work or at the club.” He added after a moment.

“Is that normal for those two?” Jeriah asked.

Henrick fiddled with his moustache for a moment, pondering the question. “No, no I don’t think it is. Though the two are very fond of each other, and if they’ve been unable to be just the two of them for a week or so.” He said, letting the conclusion remain unspoken.

Jeriah thought back to the patients, supposedly a couple, on their own in a room for a week with no instances of physical contact beyond absolute necessity. “I’m not so sure.” She thought to herself.

“Why were you looking for them? They told me you had discharged them.” Henrick said.

“I did, but they agreed to return periodically for check-ups, and today was the first check-up.” Jeriah replied.

“Well, I want to know why they’ve hidden themselves away. If you have time, Doctor, I’ll take you to their living space.” Henrick said.

Jeriah contacted Olivia and briefly explained the opportunity. It was no surprise when Olivia informed her that neither Francis nor Guuka had shown up at the clinic since she had left.

Jeriah and Henrick walked together a quarter of the way along the colony in silence and their own thoughts. The viewports towards the Regent did little to calm the trepidation that Jeriah felt. Sometimes when they passed large crowds, her head would ache and between blinks she would see glimpses of the terrors that haunted her sleep. On their way she saw Doctor Shamzai, the colony’s therapist. Jeriah could not get herself to approach the woman however, her frost-broken form repulsing her. Even as Jeriah gasped and the nightmare-vision faded, she couldn’t get it out of her head.

Henrick knocked at the door to the pair’s living quarter. A long moment passed in silence as Henrick and Jeriah waited. No answer, so Henrick knocked again, heavier this time.

“Wait here.” Henrick said after another wait. He fished a keycard out of his pocket and swiped it over the pad. There was a sound like a bell and the door to the pair’s apartment slid open. The room past the door and its airlock was sparsely but smartly furnished, but not a light was on.

“We can’t just barge into their home!” Jeriah whispered hurriedly after grabbing Henrick by the arm.

Henrick looked about the corridor in the living block. “It’s fine, I’m a friend. If they’re there, I’ll say I had a case I wanted Francis’ eye on. Which is the truth, I might add.”

“If they’re not?” Jeriah asked.

“Then let’s see if we can’t find out where they are.” Henrick said.

Jeriah let go of his arm and he stepped into the apartment, disappearing into the darkness. Jeriah waited, wondering what she should say if someone passed, but no one did. The ambient noises of the colony, with its clicks, creaks and hoots that had once been so calming, now unnerved her, her heart skipping a beat with every rush of gas somewhere deep in its mechanisms.

“They’re not home.”

Jeriah jumped, hand flying up to her mouth to cover her gasp of fright. Henrick had returned from his scouting without a sound.

“Oh sorry, did I startle you?” Henrick asked. He too looked unsettled.

“You did,” Jeriah said after catching her breath, “But no matter. Did you find anything?”

“A little. Come inside.” Henrick said and guided her through the living space. Like the entrance, it was simple but stylish, evident of great wealth applied with moderation. It was only when Henrick pointed them out that Jeriah saw the cracks.

“Francis has always been the stylish businessman, like something out of a movie. The times I’ve been in his own home, it’s been near spotless. Guuka has always been much the same, even if she owns a few more plants, with the clutter that comes along with that.”

As they walked past the little kitchen, Henrick pointed at the two plates on the counter, each still sticky with some plant-juice. From the wealth displayed in the apartment, Jeriah would guess the juice to be from Regent Gourds. Cutlery was strewn in the sink, also still sticky and uncleaned. The bedroom, too, was unkempt. The fine linens and silks of the bedsheets were on the floor, but the large walk-in-closet, that dominated a whole wall and was half the size of Jeriah’s entire Earthside apartment, was closed and untouched.

“I can’t even see the clothes I picked out for them.” Henrick said while picking over the scant few items left for wash.

“You said you met them after they left my clinic?” Jeriah said.

“I did. They claimed they were quite tired, and they would see me after they had had some rest.” Henrick said.

“Did you notice their clothes?” Jeriah asked.

“I did, but it was the high street, so I decided not to say anything.” Henrick said.

“Are they normally cool with switching up their styles?” Jeriah said cautiously.

“No, no they are not.” Henrick said and replaced a dark-blue shirt with an intricate pattern.

Henrick brought her back out of the bedroom and into a small room, the walls lined with bookshelves and a mahogany table dominating the central aisle of the room, various notebooks open on the deck along with a large computer screen turned towards the far window. Jeriah shuddered at what it must have cost to ship such an expensive item all the way out here. A mug of water stood on the table surface, droplets of water resting on the surface of the table around it.

“I found this then came straight out to get you.” Henrick said and walked around the table. The computer was on and unlocked. On the screen Jeriah could see emergency and maintenance documentation for the colony. It was publicly available, but she could not see why a businessman would be especially interested in any of it.

“It wasn’t sorted like this when I found it. I flipped through it a bit.” Henrick said and pulled a window to the front. “This is what was displayed first.”

It was a technical map of the colony ring, complete with service tunnels. More importantly it listed a number of designated storage areas for space suits in case of an emergency.

“Why would they want that kind of information?” Henrick said.

“Maybe after getting flung out into space they wanted to prepare for it in case it happened again.” Jeriah said.

“That makes some sense I suppose,” Henrick said, “But they’re not here, and this is some kind of clue as to where they might be.”

“Well, that one’s the closest one.” Jeriah said and pointed at a spot on the screen. She did not hide the scepticism in her voice.

“Well, I for one am going to check it out. You’re welcome to come along, doctor.” Henrick said.

The emergency storage area was easy to find; just like a building on Earth would have signs pointing to the emergency exits, so did the space colony. And at the emergency exits situated along the walls of the colony was also stored spacesuits so the populace could survive if they had to leave the confines of the colony.

By policy the doors were not locked, so Jeriah and Henrick could simply walk in.

“What now? Should we just check the suit-racks?” Henrick said.

“You do that, I’ll be over there.” Jeriah said and pointed to the office off to the side of the emergency facility where a light was on.

Henrick nodded and left her to it, stomping off towards where the suits were supposed to be stored. Jeriah took a deep breath and started for the office. She found herself holding her breath and taking measured steps, unsure if she would find two strangely-dressed characters around the corner and not wishing to do so without forethought. 

Jeriah stood beside the office door, straining her ears. All she could hear was someone working a keyboard. Cautiously leaning around the corner, Jeriah recognised the person at the office’s computer.

The engineer Nikolav looked up with a start when Jeriah knocked on the metal door that was open wide. “Oh, it’s just you, Doktor.”

“Just me, Nikolav. Expecting solitude?” Jeriah said.

Nikolav affected a slight smile. “Ah, I apologise. I have slept badly these last few days.”

He indicated the computer screen with a finger. “I wasn’t expecting anyone, but it is not secretive work. It is just that, uhm-“, Nikolav said, his words faltering.

“Yes?”

“Please don’t spread this around before Security’s had a look, Doktor Jeriah, but we have two spacesuits missing.” Nikolav said.

“Well, it just so happens,” Jeriah said slowly, “That we might have 2 missing colonists.”

“You think they might have stolen the suits to go on a little walk?” Nikolav asked, eyebrow raised.

“I hope it’s that simple.” Jeriah said.

“Looks like I was right, there are two miss-“ Henrick said as he stomped into the little office.

“Mr Henrick, meet Nikolav, engineer on this station. He’s ahead of you by a smidge, it would seem.” Jeriah said with a slight chuckle.

The two men exchanged handshakes with some sheepishness.

“Anyways,” Nikolav said, “The cameras should have caught who did it. I was bringing the footage up as you entered, Doktor.”

“Let’s see it. Henrick and I have a pretty decent idea of who it could be.” Jeriah said.

The footage was without colour and sound, but even so it was easy to recognise Francis and Guuka in their mismatched clothing. They hadn’t changed since leaving Jeriah’s clinic. The footage showed them entering and retrieving a suit each from the racks. They each put their own suit on without rendering any assistance to the other, put on the helmets and went through the airlock.

“There are no cameras that show outside the airlock, but that exit goes to the inner side of the ring.” Nikolav said.

“To the tree.” Henrick added.

“Why steal suits? If you want to visit the tree, there’s plenty of organised ways to go about it.” He continued.

Jeriah thought back to the couple’s treatment and their odd behaviour. “I think the incident was more traumatic for them than anyone could have realised. I don’t think it’s wise to let them be unsupervised out there.”

“Unsupervised or not, they stole two suits outside of a declared emergency. Security will want a word with them.” Nikolav said

“Depending on how they are doing right now, Security might unnecessarily escalate the situation.” Jeriah said.

“I know the pair, and Jeriah is a doctor. Let us go and get them, calm them down if they’re troubled.” Henrick said.

“It’s not a terrible plan.” Nikolav said after a moment.

“I’ll take responsibility if something goes wrong.” Jeriah said.

Nikolav sighed. “I know you will, and that’s the only reason I’m agreeing to it. I’ll wait with calling Security till you’ve returned.”


	5. Chapter 5

The spacesuit slowed her movement, along with the lesser gravity. Doctor Jeriah had to continually remind herself to take measured breaths as Henrick and her stepped along the terrain in the inner area of the colony. They would be visible to colonists looking through the viewports but Francis and Guuka would have been visible too. It was not uncommon to see people in spacesuits in the inner area. The Regent towered above them as it always did, unfathomably huge. Just as the canopy stretched above them, Jeriah knew that its roots did the same below. Geological surveys had attempted to chart the extent of its root-system, all with limited success. Even now at the height of their power, Mankind could not see that far through solid rock, and even before the construction of the colony it had quickly become forbidden to dig on Rawlica III, citing the unique nature of the Tree and the lack of understanding as to how it survived the harsh climate. The risk that it could die during the exploration was an unacceptable one.

Almost immediately out the airlock, Henrick fancied he had spotted a bootprint in the dust and Jeriah simply followed behind him, eyes peeled for the glint of spacesuits in the unfiltered starlight. Every once in a while, another bootprint would present itself and so on they went, walking in the eerie silence of space until they were far in the shadow of the canopy and the vast roots cresting the planet surface were not far away.

“Say, do you see that too?” Jeriah said and pointed towards one of the roots.

“No, I- Wait, I spoke too soon. I see something too, a glint.” Henrick replied over the radio.

“They don’t seem to be moving, let’s hurry it up.” Jeriah said and put as much spring in her step as she dared.

Her unease and heartrate only grew as they approached the roots­. Several times she found herself subconsciously checking the locks on her helmet, and she could see Henrick looking about, sometimes even behind them as they walked. Jeriah didn’t know what he thought he might see, but she found she could not blame him.

When they got close enough to see that the glint they had seen earlier was a pair of spacesuits face-down in the dust, Henrick picked up his pace too.

“Francis! Francis!” He shouted into the radio as he knelt awkwardly next to the suits and reached out to shake them. They were clearly not empty but neither responded to the disturbance.

“Turn them over, who are they?” Jeriah said and knelt beside him. She could see no immediate damage to their suits but even a small puncture could be fatal if left unpatched.

Henrick did as she asked then stood back, the paleness of his face visible even through the visor of his suit. Francis and Guuka stared back at them. Their eyes were pale and unseeing, and the insides of their visors showed no signs of breathing. Each had a black-and-blue hand exposed to space and a pair of right-handed gloves lay beneath the closest root.

“I’m sorry, Henrick. I should not have allowed them to leave my clinic so soon.” Jeriah said.

“You couldn’t have known.” Henrick responded, his voice choking.

“I suppose they had some shared delirium and went here to die together.” Jeriah said. “They wouldn’t have suffered long, Henrick.”

If the reassurance had any effect, Jeriah could not see it through Henrick’s visor.

“I don’t understand.” Jeriah said, her exasperation too great to keep out of her tone.

“Wasn’t it acute frostbite?” Olivia said and pointed to the hands of the pair. Each of their right hands were severely frostbitten.

“That would not have killed them so quickly, they were gone for less than 8 hours.”

Jeriah pointed to the oxygen tanks they had removed from their suits. “They had plenty of oxygen on hand. The suit would have closed off the exposed area to prevent further loss of internal pressure and oxygen.”

“We found no cuts, punctures or bruises on them either, except a scuff on their knees probably resulting from falling to the ground from whatever rendered them unconscious.” Olivia said.

“Nothing blocking their airways, circulatory system or guts, certainly not anything so suddenly harmful. True, the frostbite would have caused them severe pain and more harm if untreated but it would have been days yet.” Jeriah continued.

“No unusual strain on the heart, lungs, nervous system or brain.”

“There is no probable cause of death.” Olivia finished.

“And yet they are dead!” Jeriah said with a raised voice.

She grasped a scalpel from the surgery desk and had to restrain herself from throwing it across the room. “First they come here, in a state where they should by all rights be dead and make a miraculous recovery.”

The scalpel banged on the desk. “And then they come back, dead when by all rights they should be healthy and alive! What is going on!?” She finished and shouted, furious.

Olivia stood by, uncertain how to handle the Doctor so angry. In all her years at the clinic, Doctor Jeriah had always been calm and composed even during emergency situations.

“Sorry Olivia,” Jeriah said while covering her face in a mix of shame and tiredness, “It’s just I have never seen anything like this, and I haven’t slept very well lately.”

That got a slight smile to Olivia’s features. “I understand, Doctor, it’s a very perplexing case. And you’re not the only one who is having problems sleeping.” Olivia pushed the last point home with a yawn, Jeriah noticing the bags under her nurse’s eyes.

Jeriah looked down at the bodies. After they had finished their examination, they had been covered up with a thin sheet. “It’s getting late and I doubt we’ll learn much more today, let’s-“

“Doctor!” Olivia said and pointed; alarm clear in her voice.

The bowl of water to Jeriah’s right was shaking and creating waves on the water’s surface. The same moment the room filled with the noise of metal instruments shaking about on tables. Before Jeriah or Olivia could react, the lights in the clinic cut off.

“Just stay calm, Olivia, the backup generator should kick in any moment.” Jeriah said and took a firm hold on the operating table. She could feel the continuing quakes through it.

A light switched on. “I’ll go check in the street, see if we’re the only ones with the lights out.”

Jeriah found a chair and sat, alone in the darkness. The week had been long and hard and with 2 mysterious fatalities, it was not going to get much easier. As she considered what to say to Security when they inevitably came calling, the clinic was bathed in a red light as the backup generator switched on. A part of her made her check that neither of the bodies had moved.

“Jeriah Matleena, you’re a trained medical professional. You know they wouldn’t.” She told herself.

“Then why did they come back from the dead? Why did they then fall over, dead?” Was the thought that immediately followed.

Olivia came back inside before her thoughts could go further down that path. “Everyone else is in the dark like us. Some people said the southern power station got put offline for some reason, but there’s been no announcement yet.”

“Figures, they can’t have had much more forewarning than us. Help me get the bodies on cool, will you?” Jeriah said.

She felt much calmer as soon as they engaged the locks on the cooling shelves.

“Don’t worry about the cleanup, doctor, I’ll handle it. You go home and sleep.” Olivia said. She was already collecting the medical journals about their workspace.

“Thank you, Olivia, I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well.”

The streets were nearly empty. Jeriah only saw a couple other people on her way home, each hurrying about their business like she was, anxious to be home. The red lighting cast it all in an eerie light, making faces seem suspicious and cruel and cast long shadows about the thoroughfares of the colony. Her apartment was not much different, even her plants seeming like cruel tendrils in the red tinge. Much like the other nights, her sleep was interrupted time and time again by nightmares of colonists with horrific injuries appearing from thin air.

When Jeriah gave up on sleep, weary and with bloodshot eyes before her bedside clock had even shown 06:00, the regular lights of the colony had come back on. She had her breakfast on the go, grabbing a sandwich from a small shop on the way to her clinic. The streets were almost as devoid of people as they had when she had gone home the previous night, and the few that she did meet barely returned her greetings before continuing their own business. Jeriah quickly found the unease from the night before returning, making her eyes dart at every shadow. She breathed a sigh of relief when she arrived at the clinic. She switched on all the lights that she could, eliminated as many shadows as was possible. On her workstation was a smattering of messages, mostly the usual weekly blogs and news and the turndown-message from Olivia. But there was one personal message; it was from Nikolav. The title said  _ Regarding last night’s blackout. _ With all that had been happening lately, that sent a shiver down Jeriah’s back. True, they didn’t exactly happen all the time, but why was last night’s blackout special? And why was an engineer contacting a medical doctor about it?

_ Jeriah, you told me you and Henrick found the bodies down by the foot of the tree. Did you see anything unusual there? Our scans indicate that a tree root is what knocked out the generator last night and caused the blackout. Get back to me when you see this message. _

\-  _ Nikolav” _

“Yes?” The engineer replied. Other voices could be heard in the background for a moment before they receded.

“Oh, uh, hello Nikolav.” Jeriah said, taken by surprise at how quickly he’d picked up.

“Ah, hello Doctor. You got my message?”

“I did. Nikolav, what do you mean, a tree root?” Jeriah said.

“What I said, a tree root.”

“Nikolav, the Regent has been utterly immobile, some might say stunted, ever since mankind put any kind of measure to it.”

“Trust me, I know, but our instruments measured a quake and our scanners show a large organic object that’s pushed into the ground beneath the southern generator hub, displacing the ground enough to severely damage the generator. And it wasn’t there a few days ago, that’s for sure.”

“That’s insane.” Jeriah said, but she reflexively looked towards the clinic’s back room where the bodies were kept. No signs of any disturbance.

“Doctor, we triple-checked. I think Rasmus’ the only one that’s gotten any sleep since the blackout and that’s just because he fell asleep at the keyboard while the second survey was compiling.” Nikolav followed up with a yawn that seemed almost theatrical.

“So why ask me?”

“I sent Henrick the same message. You two were out there yesterday, no one else was, I checked. Hoped you might have seen something, anything. If the Regent makes any more moves like that, the colony’s got a big problem.”

“Doctor Jeriah?” Nikolav said after a moment.

“Sorry Nikolav, got caught thinking. No, I don’t think I saw anything unusual while I was out there.” Jeriah replied.

“Really?”

“Really. My attention was on the bodies, but I didn’t immediately spot anything awry.”

“Ah. I guess I put my hopes up.” Nikolav said. The voices in the background grew in volume again.

“It’s strange, though.” Jeriah said, almost to herself.

“Hmm?” Nikolav replied.

“Well, I brought the bodies to the clinic to Security’s request to see why they’d died.” Jeriah said slowly.

“They suspect foul play?” Nikolav said.

“Maybe, I don’t know, they just asked me to do an autopsy. I did as they asked, and I don’t know to tell them.” Jeriah said.

“Seems to me you should tell them what you found.” Nikolav said.

“What I found makes no sense.” Jeriah said, exasperation creeping into her voice.

“Why doesn’t it make sense, Doctor?”

“Where to begin?” Jeriah thought.

“Going over the full case would take a long time, so I’ll cut to the chase. First off neither of them should even be alive, and now there’s no feasible cause of death for either of them.” Jeriah said, aware of how crazy she sounded.

“I don’t understand, Doctor.” Nikolav said after a moment. She could hear his name being called in the background.

“Nikolav, I’ve spent 2 weeks on and off treating these two and now examining their dead bodies, and I feel I understand even less than you.” Jeriah said.

“Look Doctor, work beckons and I have to go, maybe get a second opinion?” Nikolav said, the background noise intensifying.

“Not a bad idea, Nikolav. Talk to you later.” Jeriah said and closed the call.

After calling around, Doctor Jeriah left a message for Olivia, grabbed a print-out of Francis and Guuka’s journals and left the clinic. The streets were livelier than they had been that morning. The initial shock of the blackout had passed, and cafés and shops had reopened, and shoppers had ventured out from their homes. Jeriah felt much calmer than she had earlier. Venting her frustrations, albeit briefly, to Nikolav had helped. A clinic she had worked with in the past once or twice had agreed to look over the journals and give their opinion. They had discussed a handover of the bodies, but that was speculative for now. Jeriah was not opposed to the idea, she would just have to persuade Security.


	6. Chapter 6

“Doctor Yodo?” Jeriah called after ringing the bell. She couldn’t help but notice that Yodo’s clinic had a layout much like her own.

A Japanese woman rounded the corner with a smile. Jeriah recognised the uniform; hers was much the same. “Ah, Doctor Jeriah. Good to see you, how are you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Jeriah lied, “How about you?”

“Good, good. I’ve had a few patients today that knocked heads during the blackout. Nothing serious, thankfully.” Yodo replied.

“That’s good. I brought the files I was talking about.” Jeriah said.

“Ah yes! Your mystery patients.” Yodo replied.

“I can look into arranging for the transfer of the bodies. They’re on the cool in my clinic right now.” Jeriah said while Doctor Yodo skimmed through the journals.

“I do not wish to be rude, Doctor Jeriah,” Yodo said after a few minutes of reading. Jeriah had just been sat in a chair waiting patiently, “But you must have missed something or forgot to note something.”

“Since there’s no cause of death?” Jeriah said.

“There is no cause for concern, Doctor Yodo, this is why I wanted a second opinion. It’s a perplexing and downright infuriating case and I am nearing my wit’s end with it.” Jeriah added calmly. Doctor Yodo relaxed a little.

“I’ll see what I can get from this. I’ll need the bodies too.” Doctor Yodo said after a moment.

“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll talk to Security about it.” Jeriah said.

Jeriah turned to leave but then noticed something that brought her back to the previous day and the blackout. A pen on the clinic’s front desk was shaking with enough force to occasionally jump up and down. Then the quake hit in full. The whole room shook and shifted to the side, spilling both doctors to the floor in a pained heap. Pots and shelves groaned and toppled. The roar of grinding and tearing metal filled the air, though thankfully it seemed the inner wall of the clinic remained intact.

“Doctor Yodo? Doctor Yodo!” Jeriah called out when the quake subsided for a moment. A cabinet had toppled, and she couldn’t see the other woman.

“I’m over here.” Doctor Yodo called out in a strained voice. Jeriah hurried around the cabinet to find the woman on the ground, clutching her stomach and with a pale tint to her features.

“Something fell off the cabinet and knocked my wind out. I’ll be fine.” Yodo explained while Jeriah looked her over.

She helped Yodo to her feet and to a chair that had remained upright. “I’ll find some help outside.” The other woman nodded thankfully while sucking down air.

The scene outside the clinic was just as chaotic. Several of the large windows had been closed off with metal bulkheads. A few buildings along the section she could see were badly warped, their construction deformed by the force of the quake. People were wandering about in a daze, focused on the central lane of the thoroughfare to avoid debris falling off the damaged buildings. Jeriah found herself wishing Nikolav had found a solution of some sort to the problem they had talked about.

The lights in the colony ring flickered. Shouts turned to screams as a second quake turned into a muted explosion when, further down the ring, the floor creaked and expanded upwards, something beneath the soil moving the metal aside like it was tinfoil. A machine in one of the buildings, burdened by the shift, exploded, showering the onlookers with scorching metal shards. With a great crash, the inward window cracked and blew out, the glass shards sucked into the vacuum of space. Normally a metal bulkhead would be quick to seal up such gaps, like it had closer to where Jeriah was, but the viewport frames had been bent so thoroughly by the quake that the metal sheets could not move and were stuck in their storage compartments. Air began rushing out of the resulting holes in the colony hull, sucking debris and screaming people with it. Claxons began blaring, adding to the cacophony of noise in the space, and the section-bulkheads started coming down. Jeriah rushed to help who she could, but so many were too far away or being carried away by the escaping air to help. With a definite clang the bulkhead shut. Jeriah knew that at least 100 people were still trapped on the other side, but there was nothing she could do. Throughout the ravaged thoroughfare many were dumb with shock or openly crying, but Jeriah did not have the luxury. Doctors were needed now more than ever. She registered Doctor Yodo guiding people into her clinic and followed her example. She didn’t know where Olivia or Nikolav were, and she could only hope they were safe.

When, hours later, things had quietened down and Yodo and Jeriah had treated the most threatening injuries amongst the people gathered in the clinic, Jeriah excused herself and stepped away for a moment. There had been some effort towards cleaning up the thoroughfare in the wake of the quake, but there were so few able to work that progress was slow. In the distance the bulkhead was still sealed, cutting anyone off from that side of the colony, as well as many from their loved ones. Dozens of people were at the foot of the bulkhead, some still trying to get past and some just sobbing. She took out her phone and tried to call Olivia.

“ _ Due to reduced bandwidth the communications network is reserved for emergency personnel. We thank you for your patience.” _ Said a monotone voice.

She cursed her bad luck. Her clinic had an emergency line but her personal phone was personal, and as such did not.

“That policy might have to change after this.” Jeriah thought and looked around again. It was quite feasible that others like herself were cut off from their regular workstations and as such, their emergency line.

“No luck?” Kano (Ichijou) asked. He was Doctor Yodo’s assistant and had arrived shortly after the quake had subsided. Reliable worker, even if he seemed near-incapable of saying no.

“Communications still reserved.” Jeriah said and sighed.

“That’ll probably stick till the bulkhead’s up.” Kano said. Yodo passed by, nodded at Jeriah then hurried on. They had treated as many life-threatening injuries as they could, but there were still many with serious injuries. Jeriah wanted to leave, search for Olivia and Nikolav and see if her clinic still existed or if the quake had levelled it, but she couldn’t just leave so many patients. Plus, with the bulkhead down she would have to take the long away around, and that would take far too long without transport.

“Transport…” Jeriah muttered to herself.

“Kano, how did you get to the clinic?” Jeriah asked after a moment.

“I rode my bicycle most of the way, why?” Kano responded.

“Can I borrow your bike? I want to see if I can get back to my own clinic.” Jeriah said.

“I’ll make sure you get it back; I’ll reimburse you if something happens.” She added when Kano didn’t respond.

“Doctor Jeriah Matleena, was it?” Kano asked as he fished out a bundle of keys.

“Yes, I have a clinic called  _ Panaceutical _ a bit south along the colony.” She said and happily took the bike key when Kano held it out.

“It’s a red  _ Cosmoport.  _ Be careful out there, Doctor Matleena.” Kano said.

Jeriah thanked him again, explained it briefly to Doctor Yodo and left the clinic. The older woman was sad to see her leave, since they still had so many patients, but understood why. And, lying on its side just outside the clinics open front, was indeed a red city-bike. Aware that the road was going to be bumpy and that she had no safety gear, Jeriah set off carefully.

A few times as she rode along the thoroughfare the lights would flicker or cut out for minutes at a time, sometimes switching to the backup generator or back to the mains. In the red lighting of the backup generator the debris-strewn thoroughfare resembled something out of a nightmare, long shadows cast everywhere by the damages from the quake. Much like after the blackout she saw very few people on the streets, and even then, they seemed to either be arguing in small groups or clustered around the emergency buildings. The administration would have their work cut out for them both restoring the hull of the colony and the trust of the populace. When she passed the engineering offices she was tempted to ask after Nikolav, but decided to wait; getting back to her clinic was more urgent. If it was not closed off by the bulkhead there were bound to be victims on this side that needed treatment too, if it wasn’t already too late.

Grateful for her good physical condition, Jeriah arrived at her clinic after a few hours on the bike. The building was still standing and seemed in the same shape as when she had left it. Less than a hundred meters down the thoroughfare loomed one of the bulkheads . At least the hull-breach had been in a small area. A group of people stood outside the closed front door of her clinic. At her approach their heated argument paused and turned towards her.

“Ah good, here she comes now. Doctor Matleena!” One of the men called out.

“What is it?” Jeriah said, not meaning for it to sound so curt. The man walked beside her as she parked the red bike next to the door.

“My mother was injured in the quake and this was the closest clinic to us.” The man said.

Jeriah glanced at the elderly woman the man was referring to. She was standing on her own two feet and discussing something with her family around her. “What happened? She seems healthy enough.”

The man looked back at the group, then leaned in conspiratorially. “That’s just it, see the hole in her jumper?”

“I do.” Jeriah said. The hole was long and ragged, going all the way from her right hip to her clavicle. Now that she looked at it she could also see the red colour staining the edges of it.

“When the big quake happened, one of the windows blew out. A glass chunk cut my mom open,” The man’s face grew red as he spoke and he had to pause for a moment to hold back tears, “right there in front of me. I saw it, clear as day. I tried to stop the bleeding-“

“I understand, don’t worry, take your time.” Jeriah said, gently squeezing his shoulder as his explanation faltered again. Whatever the situation was, Jeriah reflected, this man’s trauma was real enough.

He wiped away a tear, took a deep breath then continued. “I couldn’t save her, I could only drag her to the safe side of the bulkhead before it closed.”

That rung a bell in Jeriah’s mind. An unpleasant one. “Sir, I understand you had a traumatic experience, but if that woman is your mother then she is clearly fine.”

“Would you have a closer look at her, doctor? She too says she is fine, but I know what I saw.” The man said.

Had this happened three weeks ago, Jeriah would have dismissed his memory as a gross exaggeration, but since then she had seen two people miraculously survive fatal injuries.

The woman was cranky but complied readily enough when Jeriah insisted. There didn’t seem to be any other patients around, though they might begin to make their way to the clinic if they noticed it was open. The inside of the clinic was a mess. Much like in Doctor Yodo’s clinic, shelves and cabinets had fallen down and about, spilling their contents on the floor. Olivia was nowhere to be seen in the clinic and Jeriah’s message to her nurse was unopened in the system.

With some help from the woman’s family, Jeriah cleared an operating area and set them to clean up the entrance while she did a cursory examination. The stain on the jumper was indeed blood, but the woman’s chest bore no scar or sign of injury, and she had no sign of anaemia.

“Do you have any recollection of what happened, Mrs. Richter?” Jeriah asked after she had put her stethoscope down. Mrs. Richter had a healthy heart for someone her age, but then living in the slightly lesser gravity of Rawlica III seemed to have such benefits.

“Must we do this?” The woman asked.

“Your son asked me to, so if not for your own health, then at least for his peace of mind.” Jeriah said gently.

Mrs. Richter looked at Jeriah for a moment, then spoke. “I remember walking down the street, then a lot of shaking, then a horrific tearing noise and I lost my footing. Fell on my back, hurt terribly.” 

“Does it still hurt?” Jeriah asked, having a sneaking suspicion as to the answer.

“Funny enough, no. I remember thinking I must have broken something, but then I heard glass shattering,” Mrs. Richter paused, her mouth moving silently as if she struggled with what came after, “And then I don’t remember anymore before I woke up. My son was holding me and crying. I haven’t seen him cry like that for years and years.”

“Then he said the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What did he say?” Jeriah said.

“He said ‘Mom, but you should be dead’. Silly son of mine, if I was dead I’d know it.” Mrs. Richter said with a laugh.

“Hah, indeed.” Jeriah said and chuckled along even though she found it not the least bit amusing. She imagined that in that moment, Mrs. Richter’s fatal wound had vanished as if it had never been.

“Well, Mrs. Richter, you can tell your son that you are in the best of health. I can search for your medical journal if you wish, but I see no problems. You should be able to return home as soon as things calm down.” Jeriah said. She couldn’t rightly keep an old woman in her clinic like she had with Francis and Guuka.

Jeriah followed along as Mrs. Richter rejoined her family. Her son looked at her when his mother passed on Jeriah’s verdict but made no comment. Jeriah considered telling the son about her other mystery patients, but saw no benefits. No other patients had turned up in the interim so Jeriah was about to clean up her clinic when she noticed a message on her workstation. It was a reply in her direct message history with Doctor Yodo’s clinic.

_ “Could Kano be wanting his bike back already?” _ Jeriah pondered as she sat down and opened the message.

_ Doctor Matleena, this is Doctor Yodo. _

_ As you can understand, I have not yet had time to examine the journals in detail, but I believe I’ve seen an instance of it in my clinic. George, one of the young patients we treated after the quake, had a bad relapse about an hour after you left. We had barely started to examine him when he passed away on the operating table. I saw the graphs myself. A dive in brainwave activity and heartbeat. Then, as I was signing off the time of death, the boy opened his eyes and breathed again. All graphs returned to nominal values. Patient confidentiality aside, I’ve attached the dataset with personal information scrubbed out. It sounds similar to your case. What do you think? _

\-  _ Doctor Yodo _

“What I think, Doctor Yodo, is that we’re all losing our minds and surely this must be a month-long nightmare.” Jeriah mumbled and opened the dataset.

Indeed, it seemed like a sudden and miraculous recovery past the brink of death. Much like Francis and Guuka. The thought sent a chill down Jeriah’s back. This meant that whatever was going on was not something specific to two business people. She thought back to Mrs. Richter who had a similar story even if the woman herself didn’t think so. Francis and Guuka too had not thought much of their miraculous story. But then, a week after their recovery, they had died, and to Jeriah’s intense frustration she knew as much about their death as she did about their recovery.

Jeriah froze. What had she just heard? Was that a cry for help? Whatever it was, it sounded like it had come from deeper in the clinic. Her mind, tired from everything that had happened recently, struggled to recall just what she had heard.

“Hello!?” Jeriah called out. “Olivia!?”

No response. Jeriah called out again and was met by silence. With her heart thumping in her chest, Jeriah went to the front door. The thoroughfare outside was deserted and not a soul moved about. She closed the door and then slowly made her way to the back of her clinic. The rear of the infirmary was a mess. Cabinets and shelves had been put back up crudely, but the floor was still littered with papers and other objects not so dangerous as to have been immediately removed. she had left the operating room closed since she left the clinic to go to Yodo’s, so she could only imagine the unholy mess that the quake had left beyond. Scalpels and tongs lay in disorderly heaps by the walls and most of the tables were overturned. The air stank of chemicals.

“Hello?” Jeriah said as she looked around the room. Besides herself it was empty, not a soul to be seen. She just had the cooler left, then. A part of her dreaded what she might find in there, a dread planted by her recent night-terrors and reinforced by the events in the colony over the last few weeks. On instinct she grabbed one of the scalpels from the pile and crept closer to the cooler room door. Her breath caught in her throat and her palms became clammy as she unlocked the door. With a deep breath and a firm grip on the scalpel she yanked the door open and leapt inside.

“Who’s there!?” Jeriah shouted while waving the scalpel around the small room. Like in the other rooms, the quake had tipped the contents of the shelves onto the floor, creating a minefield of broken glass and near-frozen liquids.

There was no answer. The freezer hummed and the glass tinkled as she made her careful way through the shards, but no voice answered. The two cooler-slabs still showed up as locked. Her face flushed with anger and embarrassment. 

“Hello!?” She called out, a part of her expecting a voice to respond from the locked cooler-slabs. As she waited for one, she found she was holding her breath and her knuckles were pale with strain from her grip on the scalpel. With effort Jeriah put the scalpel on one of the upright shelves and took calm breaths as she worked the keypad-lock on the cooler-slabs. One clicked open and she took hold of the handle. Vapour poured out as Jeriah pulled the handle and the slab rolled out. When the vapour cleared, she found the body of Guuka just as they had left it. Checking under the woman’s operation-gown confirmed for Jeriah that the cuts from the autopsy were still present. Examining Francis yielded much the same. Whatever had pulled these two from the brink of death had only done so once. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jeriah locked the two bodies away again and closed the cooler room. It still needed a proper cleaning, but that would have to wait. She would just make sure people wore thick boots before entering. She must have heard a bottle falling and her tired brain had interpreted it weirdly.

_ “Yes, that must be it.” _ Jeriah thought as she wrote an answer to Doctor Yodo and told her of Mrs. Richter. As an afterthought she also sent a message to the other clinics of the colony. Whatever was going on could no longer be an isolated case.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Checking the display, Jeriah saw that civilian communications had been re-enabled on a limited basis. Relieved that things were slowly returning to normal, Jeriah placed a call to Olivia. After a moment of phone-queue the other end picked up.

“This is Olivia.” The voice responded. It sounded like her assistant alright, and she sounded calm. Good.

“Olivia, hi, it’s Doctor Matleena. Are you okay?” Jeriah said.

“Yeah, I’m fine. How are you, Doctor?” Olivia said. She sounded like she had just gotten out of bed in the morning. Maybe she was in shock?

“There’s just been a massive quake and a sixth of the station is cut off, how do you think I’m doing?” Jeriah thought but didn’t say out loud.

“I’ll be okay. Where are you right now? Can you come to the clinic?” Jeriah said, trying to keep her surprise at Olivia’s tone out of her own voice. 

“I suppose I can come over after I’ve had my walk.” Olivia said reluctantly.

“Olivia, are you sure you’re okay? What happened to you in the quake?” Jeriah said in as calm a tone as she could manage.

There was silence on the line. For a moment Jeriah thought the line had cut, but then Olivia started speaking again. The bedhead tone was gone, replaced by strain. “I was meeting a friend. She has always been scared of the dark, so the blackout shook her. We were going to shop for a little, have some breakfast then split there and go to work. Then the quake hit and I heard a noise like metal being ripped in two, then the shattering of glass and then all went black.”

“I woke up alone in the street. My friend found me. She cried when she did.” Olivia said.

Jeriah fought to stay calm as the story rolled on, but as the realisation hit, her stomach lurched.

“I’m much better now though. My clothes were dirty, so I borrowed some of my friend’s.” Olivia said, the strain melting out of her voice.

Jeriah tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. “It’s okay, Olivia, you can have today off. Have a nice walk, and I’ll see you at the clinic tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Okay Doctor, see you tomorrow.” Olivia said and hung up.

Jeriah practically fell into her seat when the call ended. Her sight blurred as tears rolled down her cheeks. If they could not find out what was happening before a week had passed, so many people would die. Or return to being dead, she supposed. And Olivia would be one of them. Jeriah had recognised the tone in Olivia’s voice. All the other mystery patients had exhibited the same tone in their speech, and her story of injury and blackout was also identical.


	7. Chapter 7

Jeriah dived into her work. Examining and re-examining all the findings they’d had during Francis and Guuka’s stay. All the stories she’d read or heard about people recovering from the dead in the last few days. Sometimes a message from another doctor in the colony would come in, relaying a story with the common traits. After half a dozen stories, new traits began to emerge. They would be more docile than before the accident, which Jeriah supposed she could have noticed when Francis and Guuka willingly stayed in her clinic for near a week after their recovery. Additionally, after a little while the returned, for lack of a better word, would talk about going on a walk. If asked they would usually reply that they were going to the Tree. Jeriah felt a chill down her spine. That was where Henrick and she had found the bodies of Francis and Guuka after their spacewalk. Olivia too had said she was going for a walk when they had talked. Jeriah hadn’t asked where she was going but if she had, she imagined Olivia would have answered ‘the Tree’.

Jeriah asked all the doctors that had told her stories of patients going for said walks if they had seen the patients since. Only one had, and that patient had walked onto the central thoroughfare and had been run over by a maintenance car, and so had never left the colony. Composing a quick message to the other doctors relaying her suspicions, Jeriah hurried to close the clinic and head to the nearest emergency exit going inwards. It had been hours since she talked to Olivia but maybe her assistant had been held up. Maybe Jeriah could still catch her before it was too late.

The emergency station was empty but so were the racks of suits. Each station was designed to hold a hundred suits, and near half were missing. As she put on one of the suits she wondered what she would do when she found Olivia, how she would convince her to return to the colony. Whether or not Olivia would resist.

As soon as she came outside, she could see them. White dots scattered all over the interior space, slowly congregating on the colossal Tree that sat in the centre of it all. For the first time since Jeriah had arrived at the colony, seeing the Tree no longer filled her with wonder or calm. As it towered over the colony it filled her with a sense of foreboding. Now she was surer than before that whatever was happening, the Regent was at the centre of it. Striding as quickly as she could in the lesser gravity, she joined the scattered procession. They were not in a great hurry. Often, she would pass one of them and try to talk, but they would just look at her with glazed eyes and continue walking. Their stride was not clumsy or strained, but just unhurried. Just like when she had headed outside with Henrick, as she approached the Regent, she began seeing something at the foot of the tree, where the roots burrowed into the ground. Dots of white, or reflections of light. The processionals closest to her were moving towards one of the dots, and so Jeriah followed. The foreboding from earlier had settled in her stomach and turned to a cold dread, only enhanced by the silence in the central region. None of the processionals were talking, and no signals were coming from the colony. She hoped that was intentional and not from broken equipment. They needed help and supplies already; another quake would be very dangerous. Now she was getting close enough that she crested the last hill before getting a closer look at the base of the roots. As she got her bearings, up ahead one of the processionals she had followed here fell over. She could just see them from the back, so she didn’t get a great angle on what happened before the person collapsed.

“Hey! Are you okay?” Jeriah shouted, vaguely aware of how obvious the answer was. She hurried as much as she could with the floaty gravity. The person was still as a rock and Jeriah had to physically flip them around when she got there, calling over the radio for help. None of the processionals stopped or responded, simply continued on their path. Even as she struggled with the collapsed person’s suit, two more collapsed where they stood.

Jeriah grabbed at the leg of a passers-by. “What are you doing? Stop, something’s wrong!” She shouted.

The processional simply looked down at her. The man inside the suit had the same glazed eyes as all the others she had stopped, not displaying a flicker of awareness. “Please let me go, I don’t want to be disturbed.” He said. Only it wasn’t over the radio but vaguely heard from the proximity of their suits. The man tried to walk away but Jeriah’s grip held him back.

“Please. I have to go.” He said after a few half-hearted tugs. Around them more people collapsed to the ground, like puppets with their strings cut. Jeriah’s breathing was fogging the inside of her visor and she felt faint. She had come here to find Olivia, save her from this, but now she knew what she would find. It had been hopeless from the start. The man got free without her noticing, and collapsed a few feet further on, landing on top of another person without a word. Jeriah slowly got up and started walking. The direction was an impulse, a feeling that took her past the outer mess of roots and in towards the central trunk. As she approached, she found herself afraid to touch the surface of the roots.

A large space had opened beneath the Tree where a mass of dirt had sunk, just enough to stand upright. In this space Jeriah found more collapsed processionals and with a cold sensation growing in her chest, she examined each in turn. Some were on their backs and she turned them over one by one, while others were on their backs, dead eyes looking at up the colossal Tree above them. It covered all the horizon she could see from the sunken space, extending for miles in every direction. Her search discovered many faces she recognised from around the colony. Initially she felt distraught, but quickly her feelings numbed. By the time she found Olivia, Henrick and Nikolav she was simply going through the motions. Jeriah sat down next to her old assistant and stopped for a moment. This had to be a nightmare. A horrible, unendingly long nightmare.

With a rush of dirt and dust a tunnel into the soil beneath the tree opened itself. Even in the silence of space, Jeriah’s gaze was drawn to the motion and she fancied she could hear a rushing sound, like a great wind escaping from captivity beneath the surface.

The moon-soil slid away to reveal a ramp that went down into the ground. Crafted from something like marble, it was smooth with a beautiful curve that continued ever downwards into the inky blackness, encircling by a thick root from the Tree above. After a brief walk the ramp led down into a cavernous space, far larger than any cave, natural or artificial, that she had ever seen in her lifetime. A separate world entirely, shrouded in darkness. In the far distance below her was a white spot. Not light, but something else. Jeriah walked down the ramp for what seemed like hours, yet neither fatigue nor hunger slowed her progress. In the distance the spot grew, becoming a vast ellipsis of the same white as the ramp, with veins of black visible even against the lightless expanse of the cavern. With time details grew perceptible, great spires and beautiful walls of the marble-like rock. In the absence of light, the rock had a luminosity all of its own. 

The root of the Tree continued down with her undeterred by the darkness and depths. The ramp coiled around and around like a spring, the white city in the black depths growing larger and larger. The ramp ended under a massive archway with symbols and images carved on its surface. Once, Jeriah would have been wonderstruck at seeing evidence of intelligent, alien life on the planet. Now, she had to struggle to think through the haze of the events of the last few weeks. The logic of the symbology was alien, but the Tree featured in their visualised history too. Had been there from the start of their settlement, if she understood it correctly. Looking over the city’s skyline from her position, Jeriah could see a portion of the Tree, far thinner than the one above, rising out of the centre. A massive white spire, towering above the rest of the city, rose halfway next to the Tree. The upper half had toppled, parts of it visible resting on other buildings.

The city was empty, devoid of life. Dust was everywhere, settled on every surface. One time she found a skeleton in an alleyway between two buildings made from some rock with a brilliant white hue. Parts must have been missing, for she could make no sense of it. At her touch it crumbled to dust and floated away on an unseen wind.

Every once in a while, as she explored the city, the city rumbled. The Tree rumbled and she could see movement. Some buildings cracked and tumbled in the quakes, but Jeriah felt no danger. Or had she simply stopped feeling, stopped caring for her own survival? She had lost track. Even though she must have been walking for hours, she never felt the time, nor exhaustion or hunger.

After what felt like hours, Jeriah arrived at the centre of the mysterious white city. There she found a massive plaza, tiled with some black rock, much like obsidian slabs. She imagined that once it had been a magnificent black expanse, encircling the wondrous, and terrifying, Tree that the city had been founded around. But now the plaza was in disarray. The slabs closer to the centre were cracked and displaced, thick roots growing their merry way throughout. It was much thinner here, mistakable in size for a giant redwood from Earth. Jeriah wandered closer and felt little surprise when she found a small depression beneath the trunk of the Tree, containing a large number of the weird skeletons. Like above, a large number of the inhabitants had gone here to die.

The city rumbles with a quake and enormous boulders tumble through the air around her. Buildings, ancient beyond reckoning, are smashed to dust. In the distance, she can see the winding ramp she walked to get here is hit several times before crumbling, the structure falling into the darkness. Far above her is a vast opening through which she can see stars. The Tree is surging, growing, expanding. Rising higher and higher, fat with nourishment.

Numb with her experiences and her mind without thought, Jeriah sits down on the ground and looks up. The stars are there, but she sees only the Tree, gently swaying in some unseen wind.


End file.
